International news

Fatal voyage officer's first time at helm of ferry

KwanwooJun

JINDO, South Korea--The junior officer at the helm of South Korea's ill-fated ferryboat was plying those waters for the first time when it sank, prosecutors said on Saturday.

The new insight into the circumstances of a tragedy that has cost at least 33 lives and remains a mystery came as the head of a group sending divers to the vessel said that there was "almost zero" chance any of the hundreds still missing would be found alive nearly four days after the accident.

Nonetheless, many relatives of the missing passengers-- most of them 16- and 17-year-old students on a spring-break trip--continued to hold out hope. Some refused DNA tests that authorities said would help them more quickly identify victims.

According to the coast guard's official count, 269 people remained missing as of 8 p.m. on Saturday local time.

During a briefing for reporters, government prosecutor Yang Joong-jin said that the 25-year-old third officer at the helm of the ferryboat Sewol had been traveling that same route aboard the Sewol for about six months, but never while in charge of the vessel.

Mr. Yang added that the ship didn't veer off the prescribed course, and said there was no violation of protocol for the third officer, identified only by her surname Park, to be in charge of the boat.

Even so, another crew member aboard the Sewol said that Ms. Park was navigating the most dangerous stretch of the route during a morning shift that is often the windiest and choppiest of the day.

"Giving orders to the steersman for the first time at that time of day is difficult, even for the most experienced officer," Oh Yong-seok, a 10-year sailing veteran said a day earlier from outside his hospital room in the southwestern Korean city of Mokpo.

Mr. Oh added that Ms. Park, the third officer, wasn't supposed to be on duty at that time, but was covering that shift because of the ship's delayed departure from its origin in Incheon due to fog.

The ferry had made "a radical right turn" shortly before it tipped over Wednesday morning, South Korea's maritime ministry has said.

Mr. Yang, the prosecutor, said that the government's investigation would focus on what Ms. Park and other crew members had instructed passengers to do, and when they gave those instructions, particularly once it became clear that the ship was in danger.

Lee Jun-seok, the captain, said on Friday that he didn't order an immediate evacuation because he feared the passengers would be in danger from the strong currents and the water temperature, which is about 10 degrees Celsius.

Prosecutors said they would also look into possible discrepancies between what Ms. Park says she instructed the steersman to do, and what the steersman, a 55-year-old man identified only by his surname Jo, says he was told to do. Both have been detained by police along with the captain.

Mr. Jo, who was steering the ship under guidance from Ms. Park, told reporters after his arrest: "There is a mistake I may have made. But the rotation of the wheel was unusually quick. I apologize to the bereaved families."

Mr. Yang said authorities were also investigating renovations made to the Japanese-built ship after it was acquired by its Korean operator Chonghaejin Marine Co., which may have affected the vessel's ability to stay balanced. Prosecutors seized boxes of documents related to the ship from the offices of Chonghaejin Marine on Friday. Representatives from Chonghaejin Marine couldn't be reached for comment.

Mr. Yang added the Sewol passed all safety tests, including whether the ship could stabilize in the event of tilting to the right or to the left after adding more weight.

Meanwhile, those coordinating efforts to get divers into the submerged vessel, which is about an hour from land by boat, were growing increasingly skeptical that any of the missing passengers were still alive.

Kim Jae-ho, a private diver who worked alongside the navy and coast-guard divers on Saturday, told reporters gathered on the pier near the shipwreck that he could see four bodies wearing life jackets inside the cabin through a window.

But Mr. Kim said that he couldn't break the window with a hammer because of the thickness of the window, and the pressure difference inside and outside the cabin.

Lee Won-tae, chairman of the Korea Lifesaving Association, a nongovernmental group working with authorities, said that given the frigid waters, it was unlikely for survivors to last more than six hours. "The chances are almost zero that we can still find a survivor in there," Mr. Lee said.

Rescue efforts for the stricken ship remained focused on searching for survivors and bodies. Cranes that can be used to pull the ferry out of the water remained on standby and it unknown when they will be used to raise the boat.

At the gymnasium in Jindo where many of the missing passengers' family members have gathered, the coast guard showed a 20-minute video filmed by a diver who had attempted to enter the Sewol's cabin, in an attempt to explain the difficulty of the rescue efforts. But angry family members yelled and cursed at the officials on the podium.

About 230 have given DNA samples to authorities, who have asked for them to help expedite the identification of bodies.

Separately, the prime minister's office said that the government was considering designating Jindo, the island nearest the site of the accident, and Ansan, the satellite city of Seoul that is home to the 325 students aboard the Sewol, as "special disaster zones," which would allow for more government support for the areas.

Jeyup S. Kwaak contributed to this article.

Write to In-Soo Nam at In-Soo.Nam@wsj.com, Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com and Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com

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